Signaling systems with a telephone network transfer control information, including toll free calling information, to various elements of the telephone network, such elements to include the Customer Premises Equipment (“CPE”), Central Office (“CO”), Access Tandem (“AT”), telephone switches, and gateways. Historically, information was sent through the same circuit that contained the voice traffic. A number of years ago many telephone companies moved to out-of-band signaling, separating the control signal circuits from the voice traffic circuits that the voice traffic travels on. This separation of signaling from voice circuits is known as a Common Channel Signaling (“CCS”) system. CCS systems include the Common Channel Interoffice Signaling (“CCIS”) system, based on the Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and Telephony (“CCITT”) Signaling System 6 (“SS6”), and the International Telecommunications Union (“ITU-T”) Signaling System 7 (“SS7”). In 1984 ITU-T introduced the specification for Integrated Services Digital Network (“ISDN”), a virtual CCS protocol in which the common signaling channel shares the same physical wire as the voice traffic but is contained in a separate virtual circuit.
Historically, when a subscriber dials a toll free number, the signaling system associated with the switch of the subscriber's Local Exchange Carrier (“LEC”) queries a national database of toll free numbers. Based on the information returned, which includes the code for the Inter-Exchange Carrier (“IXC”) designated to receive the telephony traffic, also known as a carrier identification code or CIC code, the LEC routes the telephony traffic to the proper IXC. The toll free telephony traffic then travels over legacy telephone circuits, often at substantial cost to the toll free number owner. The toll free number owner, typically the called party, is billed for the toll free call.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the “Act”), which amended the Communications Act of 1934, was intended to promote competition and deregulation within the telecommunications industry. The Act made possible a set of competitive LECs (“CLEC”) to compete against the incumbent LECs (“ILEC”) prior to the Act. Many of the ILECs were the result of the Department of Justice-ordered divestiture of AT&T into seven regional telephone companies. The Act required ILECS to offer facilities, including switches, access lines and trunks, to CLECs at cost-based rates. The Act also required ILECs to offer telecommunications services to CLECs at wholesale rates. With the present invention, companies competing with ILECs or IXCs can offer toll free service at rates competitive to ILECs or IXCs. The invention, in turn, benefits telephone subscribers by keeping the price of toll free telephone calls competitive.
In legacy toll free network architectures, a long distance carrier that wishes to carry telephone traffic for certain toll free numbers must provision a circuit to the ILEC's Central Office (“CO”) and/or Access Tandem (“AT”) from which the toll free call originates. Traditionally, such provisioning is costly. The current invention reduces provisioning costs by having a toll free telephony call routed to a CLEC, where provisioning an interconnection to a long distance carrier is more cost effective.